In an inkjet printer, a printhead (including a head cartridge which combines an ink tank and a head in a single unit) which ejects ink is configured to be detachable from a printer body. In the case of a head cartridge which combines an ink tank and head in a single unit, in particular, when an ink level becomes low, it is necessary to replace the cartridge including the head with a new one.
Generally, ink cartridges and inkjet heads are fastened to the cartridge by clamping levers, and thus always mounted in fixed positions. However, recent inkjet printers offer increasingly higher resolutions with extremely small nozzle spacing. Consequently, if a printhead is replaced, variations in outside shapes due to fabrication errors of cartridges or slight misalignment between cartridges and heads can cause dot positions of ink ejected from nozzles to deviate from dot positions produced by the printhead before the replacement. Such deviations in dot positions can result in quality loss of printed images. A print position adjustment function is provided to compensate for such deviations in dot positions.
There is a conventional technique according to which the printer automatically adjusts print position when a printhead is detached and attached. This technique has a problem in that the printer cannot be used for printing until the adjustment of the print position is completed. To deal with this problem, PC printer driver utilities are equipped with a function to adjust the print position on instructions from the user. However, general users do not know of the print position adjustment function or do not understand its meaning and they end up doing printing without adjusting the print position.
It is conceivable to bring up a pop-up dialog box at the start of printing or during printing, informing the user that the print position has not been adjusted yet. However, if such a warning message appears each time the user intends to do printing, it will seem obtrusive to the user, and may be even annoying especially if the user does not have any problem with printing results.